10:55am Friday 19th March 2010
By Peter Martini
YORK City Knights will hold a minute’s silence before their home game with South Wales Scorpions on Sunday in memory of former player Brian Smith, who has died aged 78.
There was also a silence at the Galpharm Stadium ahead of Huddersfield’s win over Leeds on Sunday, as Smith had also been a former coach at Fartown, leading them to the Second Division championship in 1974/5.
Smith, from Halifax, joined York in the 1953/4 season, after being a physical training instructor at Imphal Barracks.
He played in the same era as Denzil Webster and Vic Yorke, both of whom have also recently passed on, as well as internationals Baz Watts, Edgar Dawson and Jeff Stevenson.
He scored 93 tries and one goal in 200 appearances, one of which was the 1957 Yorkshire Cup final defeat to Huddersfield. His last season at York was 1959/60, before he became player-coach at Bradford Northern and then coach at Huddersfield.
Smith, who became a teacher having trained in London while playing for York, was actively involved with various ex-players’ associations, including at Halifax, Huddersfield and Bradford as well as York.
Former York RL chairman John Stabler said: “Brian was a quick and elusive winger who scored a lot of tries in the amber and black stripes. He was a thoroughly nice man who enjoyed life to the full, and he will be sadly missed by the many clubs he was involved with as a player and ex-player.”
Smith leaves a wife Maureen, children Karen, Andrew, Jerome, Joanne and Gabrielle, grandchildren Antonia, Luke, Joseph, Sam, Kate, Michele, Julien, Patrick and Roisin and great-grandchild Meghan-Leigh.
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